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Battle of Tunis
|side2= |side3= |side4= |commanders1= |commanders2= |commanders3= |commanders4= |forces1= |forces2= |forces3= |forces4= |casual1= |casual2= |casual3= |casual4= |civilian=}}The Battle of Tunis (5–7 May 1943) was an engagement between the Allied and Axis armies during the Tunisian Campaign. Tunis and the neighboring town of Bizerta were two important sea ports and their capture would entail the defeat of the German and Italian forces in Tunisia. From the start of May the Luftwaffe had been flying men and machines out of Tunisia to save what it could. On 1 May the Germans withdrew under the cover of night into the Mateur. But two days later American tankers drove the defenders out of the town Preceded on 5 May by a German counterattack aimed at recovering Jebel Bou Aoukas, the Allied final offensive under General Harold Alexander commenced the next day. The Allied infantry assault, preceded by heavy air attacks and artillery bombardments, broke the main Axis mountain stronghold and opened a gap for the supporting armour to advance through the open country. Delivered on a narrow front and aimed straight at Tunis through Massicault, the Allied armoured thrust was a hailed as a "blitzkrieg attack" and in a matter of a few hours resulted in the capture of the key ports of Tunisia. The Battle Race to Tunis and Bizerta The final Allied offensive began on the night of 5/6 May, with the US 3rd Infantry Division gaining the high ridge which overlooked the Mediterranean without resistance, and the US 1st Armoured Division advancing in broad daylight on the morning of 6 May."Maj. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, commanding II Corps, had originally planned to have Truscott's 3rd Division relieve the battle-weary 1st ID. However, as Truscott was moving his division forward to effect that relief, Bradley contacted him on the night of the fifth and told him that General Harmon had requested additional infantry to support his division's attack on a strongly defended German position on the peninsula east of Bizerte, and directed that Truscott send an infantry regiment to the Ferryville area for attachment to the 1st AD. Bradley had also ordered that an infantry regiment from the 9th ID and additional field artillery and antiaircraft join Harmon's division for the attack. Truscott's regiment was to attack the following morning. Truscott joined Harmon at his commando post southeast of Ferryville early the next morning, and after breakfast the two set out on a reconnaissance mission to ascertain how far forward Truscott's force could assemble for the attack. As they traveled they found that Harmon's troopers and their tanks were already in possession of the entire peninsula excepting the high ridge overlooking the Mediterranean, from which there came no sounds of enemy fire. It was obvious to Harmon and Truscott that "the battle in Tunisia was all but done and that no large force would be required to clear the ridge." Dogface Soldier: The Life of General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr, By Wilson A., Heefner, p. 101, University of Missouri Press, 2010The village of Massicault, which had been prepared for hedgehog defence, also fell without resistance. By the afternoon the supporting British infantry had gained their objective, and the 6th and 7th Armoured Divisions, swept forward and entered Tunis on 7 May. The first British troops to enter Tunis were the 11th Hussars and the Derbyshire Yeomanry. On the same day the U.S. 2nd Corps and Free French Forces took Bizerta, a fortress designed and equipped to stand a long siege."...it is clear, as French writers themselves avow, that Bizerta is intended to be one of the strongest fortresses in the world." Destruction of Cultural Heritage in 19th-Century France: Old Stones versus Modern Identities, Michael Greenhalgh, p. 81, BRILL, 2015 On 9 May, General Gustav von Vaerst's 5th Panzer Armee in the northern pocket surrendered, with 250 German tanks falling into Allied hands. "The quantities of war material captured from the enemy were enormous. Over a thousand guns, 250 tanks, 520 aeroplanes, many of them in first class condition, and tremendous stores of ammunition, supplies, rations and petrol. The completeness and speed of the German debacle were astonishing. Suddenly, incredibly, it was all over." The Fighting Tykes: An Informal History of the Yorkshire Regiments in the Second World War, Charles Whiting, Eric Taylor, p. 186, Casemate Publishers, 1993"By 12 May it was officially declared that all enemy resistance had ceased. Nearly 300,000 Axis troops had surrendered. More than 1,000 guns and 250 tanks were captured. Not even Von Armin, the Commander-in-Chief, escaped; not a single Luftwaffe plane was available to fly him to safety." The Perilous Road to Rome and Beyond, Edward Grace, p. 47, Pen and Sword, 2007"The main attack on Tunis commenced on 22nd April 1943. The Germans eventually surrendered on 13th May when the Allies took nearly a quarter of a million prisoners and captured over 1,000 guns and nearly 250 tanks, many of which were serviceable." Britain at War 1939 to 1945, James Lingard, AuthorHouse, 2008"In all, over 240,000 Axis prisoners were taken, as well as over 1000 guns, 520 aircraft, and 250 tanks." North Africa Campaign: A Logistics Assessment, Mark D. Kitchen, Pickle Partners Publishing, 2015The last German resistance in Tunisia, on the coast road, came to an end on 12 May after an hour-long fierce bombardment, when, together with his entire 90th Light Division, General Hans Graf von Sponeck was captured."For an hour the positions held by the 90th Light Infantry were obscured by a pall of smoke. At the end of the bombardment they surrendered. General Von Sponeck ... told General Keightley when he surrendered to him that although only two men had been killed and three wounded during the bombardment the morale of his men had been shattered." Tunisian Battle, John D'Arcy-Dawson, p. 248, Macdonald & Company, Limited, 1943 The Allied 1st Army then deployed to assist in the capture of General Giovanni Messe's Italian 1st Army, which they achieved between 11-13 May. "Tunisgrad" Some German and Allied commentators referred to this Battle of Tunis as "Tunisgrad". With the collapse of the main Axis defense lines, the US and British armoured divisions commenced a rapid pursuit. After capturing Tunis, the British 7th Armoured Division raced northwards, cutting off the 15th Panzer Division facing the US 1st Armoured Division, with the entire German armoured division surrendering without resistance. The heavy counterattacks which von Arnim had delivered earlier in the defence of Djerbel Ammera and Bou Aoukas may explain the inability of the German forces to engage in protracted fighting. When the final Allied drive materialized, General von Arnim's reserves were either completely exhausted or in the wrong place. References Category:North African Campaign Category:1943 Category:Battles